As national coordinator of health information technology, Blumenthal
will have at his disposal the $19.5 billion dedicated to health IT in
the recent economic-stimulus package. He has headed the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston.

The idea of health IT transports some enthusiasts “to almost a
dreamlike world of health care perfection in which the work of doctors
and the care of patients proceed with barely imaginable quality and
efficiency,” they wrote. But for many doctors, especially those in solo
or small practices, it “conjures a very different image — that of a
waiting room full to bursting, a crashed computer, and a frantic
clinician on hold with IT support in Bangalore.” . . .